1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that is connected to a server that provides a service over a network, and forms an image using a microblogging function which is provided by the server, and to a control method and storage medium thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there have been services that provide microblogging functions as communication tools. A microblogging function is a type of blog function in which users holding accounts of the service post “messages” and “comments” in short sentences called “microposts”. The user here is not limited to being an actual user (person) and also includes such things as, for example, image forming apparatuses themselves, linkage services, objects in a cloud service and applications. A unique identifier is assigned to each “message”, “comment”, etcetera that a user posted or sent. In a microblogging function communication is carried out via a “timeline” and “following”. Here, a “timeline” is a user specific Web page for registering/displaying/managing, as a list, such things as “comments” related to “messages” registered by users. Here, the user that registered the “message”, and other users, by registering related information as “comments” on the “timeline”, exchange information and communicate. Furthermore, “following” is the act of registering so that the messages posted by another user are displayed on a user's own Web page. (hereinafter a user following another person is referred to as a “follower”)
Amongst CRM (Customer Relationship Management) services provided as cloud services, there are examples in which a microblogging function to be used as a communication tool during work is provided. In these cloud services, client information, business discussions, etcetera is linked to “messages”, “comments”, etcetera, in order to further improve the user's convenience of use. Furthermore, at the same time, in the CRM services, file sharing functions in which files are shared between users, wherein the files can be saved, edited, updated, and referenced. An example of this is Chatter provided by Salesforce.com as a microblogging function. Document, File, etcetera are examples of file sharing functions.
Meanwhile, conventionally, techniques are known for searching for an image forming apparatus considered to be optimal out of a plurality of image forming apparatuses, when a print requester wishes to form an image, and using the image forming apparatus considered to be optimal to form the image (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-261953).
However, with the conventional technology, there has been a problem when a print requester wishes to print for another user, and select an image forming apparatus that is optimal for the other user. This is because it has been necessary for the print requester to know what image forming apparatus is optimal for the other user. In this way, conventionally, it has been possible, for a print requester, to automatically search for an image forming apparatus that is optimal for the print requester, but if the print requester wishes to print for other users, it has been necessary to register beforehand information, that correlates users and image forming apparatuses, as information for searching for the image forming apparatus that is optimal for the other users. However, providing this kind of information for all users is a considerable burden.